Antanartia Explained

Antanartia, commonly called (African) admirals, is a genus in the family Nymphalidae found in southern Africa. They live along forest edges and are strongly attracted to rotting fruit and plant juices.^[1] For other admirals see genus, Vanessa. Recently, three species traditionally considered to be members of Antanartia have been moved to Vanessa based on molecular evidence.^[2] Antanartia borbonica was not sampled by the study, but was purported to belong in Antanartia based on morphological similarity.

Species

The three species following Wahlberg et al., 2011, are:^[3]

• Antanartia borbonica (Oberthür, 1880)
• Antanartia delius (Drury, 1782) – orange admiral
• Antanartia schaeneia (Trimen, 1879) – long-tailed admiral

Former species

• Antanartia abyssinica is now Vanessa abyssinica (Felder, 1867)
• Antanartia dimorphica is now Vanessa dimorphica (Howarth, 1966)
• Antanartia hippomene is now Vanessa hippomene (Hübner, 1823)

Notes and References

1. Book: Woodhall, Steve . Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa . 2005 . Cape Town, South Africa . Struik . 978-1-86872-724-7 .
2. Wahlberg. Niklas. Rubinoff, Daniel. Vagility across Vanessa (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): mobility in butterfly species does not inhibit the formation and persistence of isolated sister taxa.. Systematic Entomology. 2011. 36. 2. 362–370. 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2010.00566.x. free. 2011SysEn..36..362W .
3. Wahlberg. Niklas. Rubinoff, Daniel. Vagility across Vanessa (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): mobility in butterfly species does not inhibit the formation and persistence of isolated sister taxa.. Systematic Entomology. 2011. 36. 2. 362–370. 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2010.00566.x. free. 2011SysEn..36..362W .